ESL One New York – Counter Strike Preview

12 Sep , 2017

ESL is no stranger to putting on events that include world class talent and the upcoming ESL One, held at the Barclay’s Center in New York September 15th-17th will continue that tradition. The hype is growing for the upcoming ESL event in which they directly invited six of the undisputed best teams from around the world while another two qualified through regional qualifiers to compete for their share of a $250. 000 prize pool. The event is part of the Intel Grand Slam, which rewards teams and players that are able to consistently secure victories and dominate the competition as well as those who can thwart teams attempting to do so.

The teams will be split into two groups of four and face off against others in their group, with the first two teams in each group to secure two victories advancing to the next stage of competition, while the other four teams see their weekend end prematurely. The final four teams will play a single elimination playoff bracket with one team emerging victorious on Sunday evening.

Cloud9 was able to qualify for the event through the North American qualification tournament, and alongside Team Liquid represent North America’s hopes of Counter Strike supremacy in this tournament with the only two North American rosters. Despite being the hometown heroes it will be difficult for either of these squads to emerge victorious in an event with such an incredible level of international competition. For Cloud9 redemption after an early exit from Malmo, and securing that redemption on home soil, would be incredibly sweet.

Among those invited were SK Gaming, Astralis and Na’ Vi who all finished top 8 at the most recent DreamHack event in Malmo. FaZe Clan and Virtus Pro round out the invitees and will be looking to redeem themselves after failing to advance to the final 8 in Malmo themselves, while Team EnVyUS completes the 8 team tournament roster as the European qualifier.

Some notable names are not attending this event, Malmo champions G2 esports being one of them, along with Gambit and Ninjas in Pyjamas who also both finished in the top 4. Regardless, with plenty of the top teams from around the world in attendance this is going to be a highly competitive and entertaining event.

With some of the best teams in the world attending it logically follows that world class talent would be involved with the event. Two of the more notables names to be working the weekend will be Paul ‘RedEye’ Chaloner as well as Duncan ‘Thorin’ Shields. You get check out the full schedule for the weekends Counter Strike action on the official ESL Tournament website.

Although Counter Strike at the event is dominating the headlines there will also be a StreetFighter V Tournament held over the course of the weekend. For more information on that portion of the event including the official schedule check out ESL’s official page.